‘Gangster glamour’: killer used woman as bait with rival drug dealers before ending her life

A Winnipeg man has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years after killing a woman he used “as bait” for an attack on rival drug dealers.

“This seems to be about as bad as it gets,” King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin told Martin Faruq Luther, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the March 7, 2023, slaying of 49-year-old Lori Gordon.

Gordon and another woman gravely injured in the shooting were “completely innocent” victims made vulnerable by their addiction to drugs, Martin said

“This was a particularly grievous and heinous offence” that showed a “callous disregard for human life,” Martin said.

Police found Gordon dead and the second woman, described in court as her longtime partner, suffering a gunshot wound to the head in a laneway behind the 400 block of Beverley Street at about 6 a.m.

Hours earlier, six masked and armed males forced their way into a Wellington Avenue apartment suite and threatened three female occupants, including Gordon and the second victim, over their “ties” to rival drug dealers.

“In order to redeem themselves in the eyes of the group, (the women) were ordered to participate in two separate missions to get blood from rival drug dealers,” Crown attorney Theresa Cannon told court, reading from an agreed statement of facts.

Sometime later, Luther, a youth co-accused and an unidentified male, all armed with handguns, took one of the women to a Spence Street apartment occupied by a rival drug dealer and had her knock on the door. The three males followed her inside and immediately opened fire on four males.

The victims — one of whom was shot in the face — were taken to hospital in unstable condition, police said at the time.

“This was a particularly grievous and heinous offence” that showed a “callous disregard for human life.”– King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin

The attackers and the women returned to the Wellington Avenue apartment suite. A few hours later the males left with Gordon and the second woman, bound for a Toronto Street drug house.

“The purpose of this mission was to meet up (with a gang rival) or his drug dealer and kill them,” said the agreed statement of facts.

Court heard the group was in the laneway between Beverley Street and Toronto Street when the three males “inexplicably and collectively” opened fire on Gordon and the second woman.

Police recovered 11 shell casings from the scene, later confirmed as being shot from the same guns used in the first shooting.

“It is unknown whether Luther’s discharged firearm caused the death of Gordon or injuries to (the second woman),” said the agreed statement of facts.

Luther was identified as a suspect early in the police investigation but remained at large until his arrest in Hanover on Sept. 26, 2023.

Luther pleaded guilty to additional counts of attempted murder and discharging a firearm with intent, for which he was sentenced to eight years and six years respectively, to be served concurrent to his life sentence.

Prosecutors and defence lawyer Martin Glazer jointly recommended the 12-year period of parole ineligibility for Luther in a plea bargain that took into account the rival drug dealers targeted in the shootings were “not at all co-operative” and the inability of the surviving female victim to identify her attackers.

“Despite that, he pleaded guilty,” Glazer said.

“I simply don’t know what could be going through your head but ‘gangster glamour’” and the allure of money and criminal prestige.”– King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin

Court heard Luther is from Kenya and immigrated to Canada as a child and is the oldest of five siblings raised by a single mother.

Glazer said a forensic assessment in 2020 found Luther to be “extremely below average” intellectually.

Glazer described Luther as a “foot soldier” for higher-ups in the gang who “escaped justice” in the shootings.

Martin expressed shock at the “completely needless” shooting of Gordon and the second woman.

“They in no way, shape or form deserved what happened,” he said. “Not only did you force them to go along with you, you were using them as bait,” Martin said. “I simply don’t know what could be going through your head but ‘gangster glamour’” and the allure of money and criminal prestige,” he said.

A now 19-year-old co-accused who was a youth at the time of the shootings was sentenced in April to seven years custody and conditional supervision in the community.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca